1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a composite armor-plating material comprising at least: a front layer, facing the impact side and mounted on a first sub-layer, the front layer consisting of a plurality of neighboring front-layer segments with form-fit contact between adjacent segments; a rear layer facing away from the impact side; and a supporting layer disposed between the front layer and the rear layer.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Composite armor-plating materials of this type are used for protection against projectiles and the use of explosives, e.g., in armor-plated vehicles, or for the protection of persons and/or objects in railway stations, airports or public buildings.
Thus DE-A-39 37 087 discloses an armor-plated component in which the armor plate is mounted on a lightweight supporting element and provided with a covering layer on is its front side. The armor plate consists of a ceramic composite with a sub-layer of aramid or glass-reinforced plastic on the rear face. The supporting element can be of a lightweight material such as aluminum, wood or similar, or it can be produced from a material incorporating cavities, such as perforated plates or rigid foam. Armor plating of this type is claimed to provide effective protection.
WO 96/29561 discloses a multilayered armor-plating material that is constructed from an optionally monolithic or multicomponent ceramic or metallic front layer backed by a hard supporting layer. In this patent, synthetic resin laminated wood is used as the supporting layer. Furthermore, the synthetic resin laminated wood layer may carry an additional layer on the side facing away from the front armor-plating; this additional layer may be made of, in particular, armor-plating steel, a duralumin material, a titanium alloy, a GRP or an aramid laminate. This structure is claimed to provide a multilayer armor-plating material that is lightweight, rigid and reasonably priced. It is for all practical purposes not delaminated, even in the impact region, when subjected to high stress, and is moreover capable of dissipating energy.
When testing the penetration resistance properties of material in accordance with DIN EN 1522, a dispersion pattern in the form of an equilateral triangle is imposed as an additional condition in order to investigate the multihit behavior of the armor plating. According to the currently valid regulations, the side length of the triangle must be 120xc2x110 mm.
According to WO 96/29561, the multihit capability of the composite armor-plating material disclosed therein is superior to that of a structure in which a GRP layer is used instead of the synthetic resin laminated wood layer. It has been suggested in WO 96/29561 that the permissible dispersion is roughly half of that in an optimized ceramic/GRP and/or aramid composite of the usual construction. However, WO 96/29561 contains no test results, so that no conclusions can be drawn on the actually attainable multihit behavior of the structure disclosed therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,457 discloses a protective garment comprising segmented plates. The plates of the first and second layers have the same dimensions but are staggered with respect to one other.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,723,214 discloses a material suitable for use in protective clothing that has three segmented layers of plates, each mounted on a layer of elastic material. The segments of the plate facing the impact side have a smaller surface area than the segments of the underlying plates, and are so arranged that the junctions at their edges or joints do not fall directly above and parallel to any of the joints in the directly neighboring layer.
Requirements placed on the protection to be provided by armor plating are becoming increasingly stringent, and it is entirely possible that, for a dispersion pattern in the form of an equilateral triangle, shorter side lengths will be required in future. In fact side lengths as low as 45 mm have recently been discussed.
The object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a composite armor-plating material showing improved multihit behavior that also meets requirements for a dispersion pattern with reduced dispersion.
This object is achieved with a composite armor-plating material comprising at least: a front layer, facing the impact side and mounted on a first sub-layer, the front layer consisting of a plurality of neighboring front-layer segments with form fit contact between adjacent segments; a rear layer facing away from the impact side; and a supporting layer, disposed between the front layer and the rear layer and consisting of a plurality of supporting-layer segments, wherein the supporting-layer segments present a surface, parallel to the front layer, whose area is the same as or less than the area of the front-layer segments parallel to the front layer, and wherein the supporting-layer segments are arranged underneath the front-layer segments in such a way that their edges are exactly superposed.